They say the Magic Roundabout is due for a revival. If you
remember, it was originally a French programme. For the BBC the
puppets were all given names in English like Dougal and Dylan
and Zebedee and then a script was written in English to fit
around the actions of the puppets.

After the Northern election, the wagons are once again slowly
starting to circle. As the DUP and Sinn Féin make their trips to
Downing Street, the Taoiseach spoke this week in Poland of the
debate going on within the Provisional republican movement.

In the aftermath of the recent elections two main stories
continue to dominate northern politics, changing trends within
nationalism and unionism. This article looks at the fall out
within the nationalist camp.

Last year London experienced the largest demonstration in its
history - against the war in Iraq. For those who share that
position its size was a great encouragement. Here was clear
evidence that people in Britain don’t regard their government as
infallible; and that there is support for diplomatic measures
and opposition to war.

DUP leader Ian Paisley has said that the DUP will “not be
talking to the IRA now, tomorrow or ever” and that general
election results in the North of Ireland represent the “burial”
of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

There is a lot of vainglorious talk about the place, but the
reality of the matter is as follows. The politics of the Six
Counties are now controlled by two political parties, one of
which is linked to an army and the other of which is linked to a
church.

Blame and retribution have replaced joy and sorrow following a
crushing defeat for David Trimble and his Ulster Unionist Party
and Sinn Féin’s eclipsing of the rival nationalist SDLP in the
North’s elections.

The Westminster election in the North of Ireland on Thursday has
become a two-horse race between Sinn Féin and Ian Paisley’s DUP.
Both parties are hoping to gain bargaining power as the North’s
largest party in the upcoming peace process negotiations.

The remark at a DUP press conference that David Trimble is
facing not just “the electric chair” but “the rope” was vintage
Paisley. Cocky, vainglorious, petty stuff that had his merry
band of followers roaring in the aisles at Trimble being
‘executed’ twice - across the North as leader of the UUP, and at
a personal level at the hands of David Simpson in Upper Bann.